Cast aluminum parts are widely used in the aerospace and automotive industries to reduce weight. The most common cast alloy used, Al—Si7—Mg has well established strength limits. At present, cast materials in E357, the most commonly used Al—Si7-Mg alloy, can reliably guarantee Ultimate Tensile Strength of 310 MPa, (45,000 psi), Tensile Yield Strength of 260 MPa (37,709 psi) with elongations of 5% or greater at room temperature. In order to obtain lighter weight parts, material with higher strength and higher ductility is needed with established material properties for design.
A variety of alternative alloys exist and are registered that exhibit higher strength. However these also exhibit potential problems in castability, corrosion potential or fluidity that are not readily overcome and are therefore less suitable for use. Therefore, a need exists to have an alloy with higher mechanical properties than the Al—Si7-Mg alloys, such as E357, which also has good castability, corrosion resistance, and other desirable properties.